Machine fob hulling and cleaning clover-seed



I. BLACKWELL,

Clover Huller.

Patented March 30, 1858.

N. PFTERS. Plwle-Lnlw m lmr, Washinglnm D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT cur os.

I. V. BLAGKIVELL, OF OVID, NEW YORK.

MACHINE FOR I-IULLING AND CLEANING CLOVER-SEED.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 19,745, dated March 30, 1858; Reissued. February 14, 1865, No. 1,868.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, I. V. BLAOKWELL, of Ovid, in the county of Seneca and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Machine for Hulling and Cleaning Clover-Seed; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of its construction and operation, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

Similar letters refer to like parts in all of the figures.

To enable others to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

Figure 1 is a vertical section of my ma chine and shows the general arrangement. A A, is the frame of the machine, B is the hopper in which the heads, or bowls, of the clover are fed to the cylinder C. D, is a feed roller, which, being arranged with teeth, serves to distribute the mass, and enable it to enter between the cylinder and concave regularly. E is the concave, placed above the cylinder so that stones, nails or other foreign substances will fall by their weight and not pass through and injure the teeth of the cylinder and concave. The cylinder may be made of wood or metal. If of wood it should be thoroughly seasoned to prevent shrinkage. After being turned to a true cylindrical form, it is covered with a metallic sheathing, in order to give a scouring or abrasive surface, as follows: I use thin metallic plates or strips, usually hoop-iron, which is well adapted to the purpose. On one side of this I raise teeth like those of a coarse rasp, by using a sharp triangularly pointed punch for the purpose. These teeth are disposed in rows ranging obliquely across the strips. The strips being thus prepared, and suitably hardened, are applied as a sheathing for the cylinder and concave in the following manner: The metal is wound spirally around the cylinder, as shown at a Fig. 2, (which exhibits a portion of the cylinder detached). The helix being continued from one end'of the cylinder to the other till the entire surface is uniformly covered. It is secured by screws at intervals as required, with heads countersunk in the metal, and care must be taken to make every Part adhere closely to the cylinder, other wise the true circle will not be preserved. The concave is sheathed with the same, but the direction of the strips or plates is at right angles to its longitude, or the strips follow the direction of the revolution of the cylinder. The teeth of the cylinder are 0p posed to those of the concave, but the difference of their positions on the two, causes the points of one to pass those of the other obliquely, or in a raking direction, which prevents the breaking and destruction of the seed, which would result from direct contact of those points, and greatly increases the grating process, by which the seed is freed from chaff, by presenting more gradual and diminishing lines or angles together.

The concave is adjusted to the cylinder by a device shown in Fig. 3. It is attached at either end to a metal plate having two ears or projections from the side I) Z), F'being the end plate and E the concave. Through these ears pass the inclined screws 0 c from the frame A, and a nut above and below each ear allows the concave to be raised or lowered as pleasure to adapt it to the cylinder. The angle of inclination of the screws is such as to keep the concave at all times concentric to the cylinder.

Fig. 4 represents a section of the end plate F, and frame A showing the ear 5 and screw 0.

The operation of the rasp-like surfaces of the concave and cylinder, one acting obliquely to the other, is to grate the chaff from the seed, and this is done so effectually that it hulls damp chaff as well as dry, though it does not separate as well under the blast when wet. Six bushels of seed per hour have been hulled and cleaned by this machine with the cylinder run at a speed of seven hundred revolutions per minute. The seed, by passing over the cylinder, falls from a greater elevation and therefore is exposed to a greater amount of the blast generated by the fan, G. As clover seed is very light it will not receive a strong blast without being blown OH with the dust and chaff. To overcome this difficulty I suspend a curtain, H, from the top of the back frame of the machine, of a size that very nearly or quite closes that portion of the machine above the screens I, J. The lower end of this curtain has a rod wound in it of a weight suflicient to prevent the force o t e blast lowing it far from the perpendicular, and yet such as to allow it to yield measurably to that force, so as not too suddenly to check it. This serves to prevent any seed from being wasted and also to modify the blast so as to adapt it to the purpose, and to spread it upward so as to act more immediately on the grain and chaff as they leave the cylinder.

The shoe K, is lined with cloth or leather, cl (Z, Figs. 1 and 5, to prevent any waste of seed through the sides and crevices.

Fig. 5 is an elevation of the rear end of the machine showing the weighted curtain H, and screens I, and J. The seed is separated from the fine dust by the blast and cleared of the coarse chaff by passing through the screens I, and J, during which it is also exposed to the blast till it leaves the machine at L in marketable order.

The power is applied to the cylinder, a cross-band from which drives the feed roller and described.

2. I also claim the combination and arrangement of the overshot gratlng cyhnder,

G, and feed roller, D, with the blast generator, G, and blast regulating curtain, H, the whole operating conjointly in the manner and for the purpose herein described.

' I. V. BLAOKVVELL. Witnesses:

J. FRASER, S. J. ALLIS.

[FIRST PRINTED 1912.] 

